Sword is new market leader for St Leger

Fame And Glory, favourite with all the bookmakers who had opened up ante-post on the St Leger at Doncaster in September, was not among the entries for the final Classic which were released yesterday.

Last weekend's runaway Irish Derby winner was a best-priced 7–4 with the layers but has not been entered by his trainer, Aidan O'Brien, who still has the market leader in Golden Sword who was beaten five lengths by his stable companion at The Curragh on Sunday.

Sir Michael Stoute, who broke his Leger duck last year when sending out Conduit to success, has made just two entries, Harbinger and Saptapadi, in his bid to land back-to-back victories.

"I saw Harbinger on Tuesday morning and he looked fantastic," said Harry Herbert, managing director of the colt's owners, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing. "He did some half-speed work today and he's really doing well physically. At the moment, the plan is to run him in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood at the end of the month and take it one step at a time.

"Harbinger's on an upward curve and he's a physical specimen that we can only see improving. He would have run in the King Edward VII Stakes but he had a muscle pull, which forced him to miss a couple of pieces of work.

"It was nothing seriously wrong and he's held in pretty high regard so we didn't want to risk him. He's not guaranteed to get the Leger trip and he's a horse with plenty of natural speed, as we saw at Chester. We will hopefully see how he gets on in the Gordon Stakes or possibly the Great Voltigeur and we will learn more about him there."